Monday, May 16, 2011

The website "skateboard city forum," (which I won't link to because some of you will leave there dumber than you are now), confirms that the childhood prank of leaving shit on someone's doorstep, ringing the doorbell, and running away is still around.

It's how I best describe the anonymous comment on a blog.

Some of my friends did away with anonymous comments long ago. My blogs don't get as many comments, and with moderation, it's been easy to delete the written words of people I am ashamed to know hold law licenses.

Whenever bloggers are critical of anonymous comments, the anonymous comment support group chimes in hysterically with all the important reasons why anonymity is essential to the continued existence of the internet. Every excuse from "I work for someone and I live every day scared of expressing an opinion," to "I am anonymous because I choose to be anonymous (read: I have the right to be anonymous and you can't take that away from me) gets repeated with just the right amount of entitlement.

While I will never understand why someone who went to law school, passed the bar, and works as an advocate is satisfied with living in fear of expressing their opinion, I no longer want to provide a place for it here.

People leave anonymous comments for only three reasons:

1. They want to criticize someone and are too scared to do it to the person's face,

2. They want to say things that aren't true without any consequences; or,

3. They fear that their opinion will have repercussions somewhere.

Whether you live in the world of 1, 2, or all three, I don't want you here. I don't want you here because for the most part, you're a lawyer, and a pathetic one at that. I don't know what you are afraid of, but you're an embarrassment to the profession, and I'd rather you embarrass yourself somewhere else, anonymously.

You want to comment here, leave your name.

If you don't, you can take your shit elsewhere.

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.